They’re made with recycled cardboard. The felt was bought second-hand. They’re hand printed with a lino-cut stamp I carved. They’re hand-bound, so each one is a little, soft book.

They’re available for pre-order now.
http://www.xania.bandcamp.com

What Being DIY Means to me

I have lots of time to work on my projects.

I’ve had full-time jobs in the past, I had more money and less time. I did this, partly, just to try it. To see if it suited me.

I am now in a new phase of my life. (I guess I’m conducting a social experiment on myself?) I’m trying to see how far I can stretch and survive with little money, but still work long and hard on projects that inspire me.

During this phase of my life, I’ve realized that I don’t need much to feel happy.
I feel happy.
I see more. I see clearly.
When I need something, some paper, paint, supplies, I can usually find it from friends, in a thrift store or out on street corners.
(Most humans are pretty adaptable to their current situations and I guess so am I.)

Some days feel terrible. Days like the one when I couldn’t buy a wicked present for my brother’s birthday. (Though I made him one instead, so I guess it worked out okay.)

When one works for oneself, it can be easy to take days off and do things slowly. Because even a labour of love can be just as torturous as any other type of work.

But I know that when I push myself to practice, to work, to write, at the end of the day I’m always ALWAYS (without fail) happy I did.

I also try to keep in mind a rule of physics: Momentum. “Things in motion, stay in motion. Things out of motion, stay out of motion.”
So when I’m out of motion, a little push can help me get working and stay working.

I have a chalkboard on my wall where I write lists of what needs to be done. I’m surprised at how quickly things get accomplished and crossed out after I’ve written them down, after I’ve been able to define them.

I also had a habit of being hard on myself and feeling guilty when things didn’t get done in a short amount of time, or when I missed deadlines. I’ve tried my best to drop that habit because it’s been of no use to me.

Most of my days in the past 6 months have been very productive.

I wanted to vocalize this, in case any of you have projects that make your heart beat a little quicker and pump that magical feeling of inspiration through your veins. (I don’t mean to sound cheesy, this is coming from an honest, non-ironic place!) If they’re on the back-burner, pull them into the foreground.
You can probably finish them, whether you have time, money, or neither.